Early on in the cycle, a druid in the Kettin Forests discovered that they could ask the plants around them to transmit a message to others in the forest. This allowed their circle to quickly spread across the continent, and it wasn’t long before some of the more politically savvy members of the conclave saw a way to integrate themselves into society across the globe, using their messaging network as leverage. It’s common in nearly every large city to have at least a small collection of “Barkers” (as they’re called by near-everyone). The circle strives to be the connecting bridge across the world, thereby bringing everyone closer to a single ideal.
The Barkweb
There are some restrictions to the use of the Barkweb. First, one cannot send a message across the network to a single entity; all messages are broadcast to anyone who is listening. This has led to an extensive procedure for identifying who a message is meant for, and means that all communication is inherently insecure. Of course, this also means that there’s a race between the creation of encoded messages and unscrupulous Barkers who attempt to break them. Second, the act of listening to the Barkweb is mentally taxing — a skilled Barker might only be able to listen for a few hours at a time before tiring, and an unskilled one might only make a few minutes. There are, however, some extremely practiced Barkers who have chosen to integrate themselves into the Barkweb itself, increasing their tolerance to exposure.